The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) hopes to complete the modernisation and upgradation of its hydel generation stations during the 12th five-year-plan period, KSEB officials said.
With many of the generators past their prime, the power projects have been limping along on annual repairs and maintenance (R&M) to keep daily power production going.
On Thursday, the KSEB okayed a Rs 70-crore proposal for modernising three of the six generators at Moolamattom power station in Idukki.
The decision follows a residual life analysis conducted over the past week, KSEB officials said.
The bidding process for the work - generators No: 1, No: 2 and No: 3 are to be modernised - will be completed by June 2014, a KSEB spokesperson said.
Generators at this underground power station are as old as the station, which was commissioned in 1976.
Renovation, Modernisation and Upgradation (RMU) of some of the main hydel projects have already been completed, a senior KSEB official said.
“The tendering process is on for the remaining stations,” KSEB member (distribution and generation - electrical) M Mohammedali Rawther said.
“We’ve taken up RMU of generators that are over 25 years old. We hope to complete the work at these stations during the 12th Plan period,” he said.
According to him, the RMU at Moozhiyar (Sabarigiri power project), Neriamangalam, Panniar, Sengulam, Pallivasal, Idamalayar and Kakkad were over.
The RMU at Poringalkuthu has cleared the half-way mark, and a detailed project report (DPR) is under preparation for Kuttiadi. In the case of Sholayar, the contract for RMU is expected to be awarded by March 2014.
Age of the generators at the hydel stations aside, major accidents at the bigger stations in recent years too have acted as a spur for the modernisation programme. An explosion in generator No: 4 of the Sabarigiri power project, Pathanamthitta, in February 2008 claimed three lives and left several injured. The blast destroyed one machine and damaged the others. Another blast at a generator of the Moolamattom power station killed two engineers in June 2011. And in November this year, a blast at a circuit breaker at Moolamattom had led to shut-down of the station.